tranferring google maps route into garmin?

I'm turning to the experts here since my attempts to figure this out have fallen short (more than once). How can I transfer a ROUTE in Google Maps into my Garmin 2610, or any model for that matter?

Let's assume that autorouting in GM may not yield the same route as Garmin Mapsource (or Road Trip, which is what I use on a Mac), so it is more complicated than just using the same endpoints. Let's also assume that the GM route was created by a series of drag/edit steps.

I suppose bi-directional transfers are of interest also, but mostly it comes down to having a route in Google Maps and wanting to ride it.

The following tutorial is easy. Just save the file as a .gpx file. If you for some reason want in .gdb format open the converted file in MapSource and do a "save as" .gdb file.

Create a new Map in Google Maps. For this, click on My Maps:

Then click on Create new map. Put a suitable name to your map:

Now you can add placemarks, either by searching for them, or by right clicking and selecting Add a placemark anywhere in the map. The added placemarks for the map will show up on the left side:

After all the placemarks/waypointshave been added, get the link for your saved map. You can get the link from the top right corner:

Then go to http://www.takitwithme.com/ and insert the Google Map link into the textbox. Click Load MyMap and TakeItWithMe will load all the placemarks from your Google Map.

Click on the Download GPX button, and you should be able to save all the Google Placemarks as a .gpx file. This .gpx file can be converted into different GPS formats. In our case, we need to convert it to a .gpx format.

For Windows users, you can use the POI Loader directly to load the GPX file into your Garmin GPS. Or, you can save the file to your desktop and drag it into the right pane of MapSource.

For Linux users, the GPX file needs to be converted into GPI format, and manually loaded. For this, use gpsbabel.

If you use dualsportmaps.com to draw your map, then it will turn it into a GPX file for you. That makes doing the transfer easy enough I think. If you make updates in mapsource, you can upload the GPX file back into dualsportmaps. I designed the drawing tools to suit the way I like to draw maps on google though. It takes a little getting used to. For example, it you want to draw a track that follows a road, you draw a line from the start point to the end point, then you add all the points you think are needed and then tell it to snap the line to the road. I found that the constant snapping caused a lot of unnecessary sluggishness. Plus for long maps with a lot of edits google would just cut me off which was annoying as well.

I opened up your route in my browser. Note my favorites bar at the top and "GMaptoGPX."

Click on the GMaptoGPX favorite brings up this screen:

Copy the text in the field:

Open up Notepad and paste the text.

Save the file.

Change the Encoding to UTF-8 and the file type to "All Files". Also, you need to manually add the ".gpx" to the end of your filename.

Open it up in Mapsource.

Here's where I had a problem. You can see in MapSource your route is a little wonky. I've never had that happen. I did a bit of investigating to figure out why, and I don't know what it is. I thought it might be because it's a loop and your starting and ending points are the same, so I tried deleting your endpoint without any success. It might be because you have a combination of destination points as well as drag-and-drop points, though I've done that in the past without trouble.

The truth is, I'm not sure why your Google Maps route didn't work as expected. I've used this program numerous times and it has worked as it should every time.

Sorry man. Don't know why it came out like that, but my instructions are still valid.

Here's where I had a problem. You can see in MapSource your route is a little wonky. I've never had that happen. I did a bit of investigating to figure out why, and I don't know what it is. I thought it might be because it's a loop and your starting and ending points are the same, so I tried deleting your endpoint without any success. It might be because you have a combination of destination points as well as drag-and-drop points, though I've done that in the past without trouble.

The truth is, I'm not sure why your Google Maps route didn't work as expected. I've used this program numerous times and it has worked as it should every time.

Sorry man. Don't know why it came out like that, but my instructions are still valid.

Jamie

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Hey Jamie,
Thanks for doing that. I did the same last night (on a Mac, so using Road Trip instead of Mapsource), and got the same results. You saved me the time of trying it out on a PC.

Anyway, what i saw imported were about 5 separate routes, just as you are showing. They seem to just be waypoints connected with straight lines... no recalulating yet. Just take ALL of the routes and bring them into a single NEW route, then tell it to "recalculate route". It all then snaps to the roads!

Those extra steps are a bit tedious if you're doing a lot of this, so it would be nice if it just worked, but at least I now have a path to get there.

They seem to just be waypoints connected with straight lines... no recalulating yet. Just take ALL of the routes and bring them into a single NEW route, then tell it to "recalculate route". It all then snaps to the roads!

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I actually prefer to leave the straight lines and let the GPS calculate the route. If you calculate the route in MapSource and then send it to the GPS, you lose the option to reverse the route. At least on my 478.

I actually prefer to leave the straight lines and let the GPS calculate the route. If you calculate the route in MapSource and then send it to the GPS, you lose the option to reverse the route. At least on my 478.

Jamie

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Good point, but in this case you at least need to group the disconnected routes together... but avoiding recalc should be possible at that point.

I wonder if any of the other methods mentioned above solve this issue of multiple routes?

I did Google Maps to KML (saved your linked map to my maps then gmaps gives a link to the KML), downloaded that then ran that file through GPS Visualizer to get to a GPX file, then opened that in Mapsource, seems to have perfect tracks. I did delete the end point to start with, although if the duplicated point causes trouble you should be able to make an end-point right next to your start point that was just a tiny bit different. Anyhow, once you get to GPX tracks you should be able to use GPS Babel or the WinGDB tool to move from tracks to routes, right?

Hope this helps,

Andy

Attached Files:

i know this is an old post, but my problem is that google maps is way more updated than my mapsource program. So I can select back roads on Gmaps and then when I send them to mapsource those dirt roads are not there.

I just found this site dualsportmaps.com and it's not too bad for an old fart stuck in the 50's to understand....I have managed to save a track across Canada to Dawson City as a first attempt.....
The only thing is, with the million or two track points to get it to follow the roads etc, will this overload my GPS nuvi 550? Will I need to make much smaller tracks and then save them in order 1 to 10 as and example for the GPS to handle it? My brain has just about handled all it can for now.....I smell smoke....but any and all help would be greatly appreciated. I also semi understand I still need to buy a Mapsource program though correct? That is to get that track into a GPS file or is it GPX...?

I just found this site dualsportmaps.com and it's not too bad for an old fart stuck in the 50's to understand....I have managed to save a track across Canada to Dawson City as a first attempt.....
The only thing is, with the million or two track points to get it to follow the roads etc, will this overload my GPS nuvi 550? Will I need to make much smaller tracks and then save them in order 1 to 10 as and example for the GPS to handle it? My brain has just about handled all it can for now.....I smell smoke....but any and all help would be greatly appreciated. I also semi understand I still need to buy a Mapsource program though correct? That is to get that track into a GPS file or is it GPX...?

Thanks guys.

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MapSource was end of lifed I believe. The Garmin website only offers BaseCamp now, which I don't love, but I didn't love MapSource either which I why I made dualsportmaps.com in the first place.

If you are really wanting to use your Garmin, go to the modify tracks page, click on the track's little colored square in the list box on the left. A popup will open that allows you to change its color and make it a "route". Make it a route (by checking the Is Route box), and then export that GPX and open it in MapSource and "recalculate it" (I assume BaseCamp can do this as well). That should get you a little closer to what you are after. I found the Garmin devices just too annoying to use for offroad stuff ultimately and created my own Android navigation software (which shares its name with the website). It has no problems with long detailed tracks. If you are wanting to do any off road navigation your Garmin will let you down. In that case I'd definitely suggest you find something else (like mine which was designed specifically for off road use). The Garmin is good for road travel though.

I just found this site dualsportmaps.com and it's not too bad for an old fart stuck in the 50's to understand....I have managed to save a track across Canada to Dawson City as a first attempt.....
The only thing is, with the million or two track points to get it to follow the roads etc, will this overload my GPS nuvi 550? Will I need to make much smaller tracks and then save them in order 1 to 10 as and example for the GPS to handle it? My brain has just about handled all it can for now.....I smell smoke....but any and all help would be greatly appreciated. I also semi understand I still need to buy a Mapsource program though correct? That is to get that track into a GPS file or is it GPX...?

Thanks guys.

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You can't upload tracks to your Nuvi 550, only routes. The maximum number of points per route is 200. You can have 10 routes imported at any one time, but you can store almost unlimited ones on a microSD card in .gpx files. You just have to delete some of the 10 to make room and then import the new ones.

If you want to follow long tracks (vs routes) you have the wrong GPS. Someone skilled in Mapsource and GPS stuff in general could probably make it work (using "off road" routes), but it still wouldn't be ideal.

. I found the Garmin devices just too annoying to use for offroad stuff ultimately and created my own Android navigation software (which shares its name with the website). It has no problems with long detailed tracks. If you are wanting to do any off road navigation your Garmin will let you down. In that case I'd definitely suggest you find something else (like mine which was designed specifically for off road use). The Garmin is good for road travel though.

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Just curious - what is your specific issue with Garmins? Limited number of track points?